Why golf?

Hmm... As a golfer I shouldn't be asking this question or maybe that's exactly the question to ask. Sometimes when your game goes haywire and the shots are dispersed all over the course, the question inevitably pops up: Why don't I give up the game and do something productive with my costly spare time?
I'll give you my answer to the riddle: simplicity, complexity, improbability, refinement, gratification and play.
Golf is essentially a simple game: it's you, your abilities, your gear, the ball and the course. The ball doesn't move prior to your hitting it, you don't have to deal with opponents physically as in many other sports. On another note golf is a wildly complex game: all of the above components interact in myriads of ways not easily predicted, even less easily controlled.
Golf is probably one of the most improbable games in the world given it's fundamentals: the lenght of the clubs you use and their ridiculously small heads, the tiny ball (roughly 42 mm in diametre), the lenght of the holes (up to nearly half a kilometre for the longer ones) and the difficulties you may encounter en route to the tiny "cup" in the green, awaiting the ball. I know of no other game where the minuteness of the ball-contact area on your tools is in such stark proportion to the vast distances the ball is supposed to cover in relatively few shots (five or less for holes of nearly half a kilometre, ideally)
Once on the green, your tribulations are not over. Your objective is now to send the ball rolling into a hole of a diametre of 104 mm, on a bad day you may find your ball sitting a goodish 20 metres from the cup. Even if it's closer, as it's supposed to be, easy success is not granted.

Refinement and dedication is my answer to the improbabilities and complexities of the game. You have a gazillion tons of grooving to do before your coarse beginners mechanics are moulded into something that's usable and dependable over and over again. Ideally you have to be able to perform without thinking consiously about how to do your different shots mechanically. This can entail exercise shots running into the hundred thousands or more before the ol' autopilot is to be reasonably trusted. Moreover it's a work that never ends. So liking the hard, lonely work on the driving range definitely is, to this golfers mind, a bonus.

When everything clicks gratification sets in. Your swing works, you rotate seeming effortlessly the body around your spine, arms and hands follow suit, the clubhead meets the ball with a soft "plop" - you see the ball sail off in the air on a long, sweeping parabola, land on the green grass, hop a few times and roll to a stop. Rotation, suppleness and the strenght and grace of a ballet-dancer are the words of magic here, not brute force, mes amis.

I never play to win. I play to play - if I do it well, I win. Winning is an added bonus, but it isn't therefore I play golf. If I lose it's because I've performed badly, it is really that simple. What keeps my interest in the game alive is the joy of making all of the elements in golf: mechanics, the course, the weather, the conditions work in unison to produce a string of situations where you feel you can rise to the challenges of the game in a both physical and mental ( Zen?) way.
Although you often play together with other golfers, golf is by its nature a game for soloists, you are essentially on your own on the course. Golf can never be mastered, it's not a game to be controlled.

If you want the essentials on golf